Bush slashes S. Fla. funding

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, May. 27, 2005

Bush slashes S. Fla. funding

Gov. Jeb Bush slashed millions from the state budget destined for his home county, but denied he was retaliating against lawmakers who may have thwarted his agenda.

BY GARY FINEOUT AND MARY ELLEN KLAS
[email protected]

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush, who has aggravated other Republicans in the Florida Legislature in years past by slashing millions from the state budget, spared much of the state's $63 billion budget from his veto pen Thursday.

But Bush, who denied that he had targeted any lawmaker for retaliation, still managed to whack away millions that were destined for South Florida, wiping out projects whose top advocates were legislators who rebuffed the governor during the 2005 session.

Gone was money to help with spinal cord research at the University of Miami, as well as money to help set up a program to aid the elderly in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, assistance to Miami Children's Hospital and money for road improvements in Key Biscayne. Bush cut $27 million in funding for South Florida counties before signing the state budget into law.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11749214.htm
(Free registration is required)

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. You would think that this would piss off his Cuban buddies too?

The real shame is that all of these are good programs, that deserve to be funded. I wonder what kind of crap got funded instead?

[AlGore-08.com]

5. Probably not - - I got this totally psychotic email yesterday

From some Freeper email list that did nothing but list the number of folks in Miami Dade who had received FEMA Hurricane assistance, and the amount of assistance they received, and heavily implied that every single claim was a scam, and that FEMA had been ripped off by "Democrats" for millions of dollars.

So the Cubans and other whack jobs in South Florida will be dancing for joy that evil Democrats won't be able to do spinal chord research, because scientific research is obviously a Democratic scam too...

[montanacowboy]

2. Yep, you don't cross the Bush boys without the

risk of retaliation - unfrikin believable - all they ever learned was how to throw temper tantrums - what a disgusting family -

[moobu2]

3. Yep, the Bush's severely punish dissenters and

handsomely rewards loyalty, even if that loyalty meant lying and forgery and worse. Lie to America for Bush and it'll get you a great promotion.

[converted_democrat]

4. Yea, and people wonder why Bush likes Bolton......

[soup]

6. Oddly enough, the panhandle fared rather well.

go figure. unh hunh.

--

Local projects survive Bush’s veto pen
Funds allocated for moving sewage plant, Ivan repairs
May 27, 2005
News Journal capital bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- Pensacola's prized projects survived Gov. Jeb Bush's veto as he signed a state budget that provides $7.9 million to move the downtown sewage plant and $4 million for hurricane repairs at the University of West Florida.

"Wins. We see lots of wins," said state Rep. Holly Benson, R-Pensacola, who lobbied Bush even before the legislative session began to provide a second round of state funding for the Main Street wastewater treatment plant.
>snip<

The budget contains $2.5 million for Baptist Hospital's future Andrews Institute of Orthopaedic Science in Gulf Breeze.
>snip<

The center will focus on preventing sports-related injuries, something not possible without state seed money, he said.
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/html/68D6B99E-BC31-4026-8290-17A1E491D11E.shtml

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some blips from around the state:

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House democrats are blasting Jeb Bush for vetoing 180-million dollars’ worth projects in the state budget that would have helped many of the state’s most vulnerable citizens. The Governor scrapped road projects, after-school programs, nursing programs, health clinics and even hurricane shelters. Incoming House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber is irate that the vetoes come alongside tax breaks for some of the states’s wealthiest citizens.
“Almost all the money he cut was to our most vulnerable citizens and in the same stroke, almost in the same breath, he is saying we need to really worry about our millionaires. I just don’t understand the logic of that in a state where so many people have such great needs,” says Gelber.
http://www.flanews.com/news3.html

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Bush's vetoes cut close for nonprofits

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
Published May 27, 2005

The governor cut funds for low-income health care, a disabled kids camp and more.

With a hearty swing of his budget ax, Gov. Jeb Bush cut the state funding Thursday for some of Pasco County's most anticipated projects, including the widening of State Road 52, a new library in Trinity and the seed money for a new Pasco-Hernando Community College campus in Wesley Chapel.

He dealt perhaps the most painful cuts to two Pasco nonprofits counting on state dollars to help some of the neediest residents. Bush vetoed $350,000 to help relocate the Good Samaritan Health Clinic, which provides health care to low-income residents in a now-crumbling New Port Richey building; and $50,000 for the Pasco Association for Challenged Kids, which runs a summer camp for disabled children.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/27/Pasco/Bush_s_vetoes_cut_clo.shtml

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>snip<
Rep. Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg, faulted Bush for vetoing $179,400 to replace windows and a generator in a building used by the Pinellas Association for Retarded Children as a hurricane shelter.

Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, criticized Bush for vetoing $30,000 for a task force on cervical cancer. She said the decision shows Bush "is detached from the health issues that face women."

For the first time in his seven years in office, Bush acknowledged that political influence did play a role in his veto decisions. He said he showed "deference" to the Legislature's presiding officers and chairmen of the budget committees.
>snip<

Bush's largest single veto involving state tax dollars was $5-million to expand a 3-year-old program that offers legal services to the poor. The Civil Legal Assistance program, run by the Florida Bar Foundation, received $1-million this year to operate in about a third of the state's 20 judicial circuits.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/27/State/Final_weigh_in__647_b.shtml

(note): darn copyright limit - Check out what Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey has to say in the last article cited about Bush vetoing projects as payback for not endorsing funding for the FTAA in Miami.

[FlaGranny]

7. Yeah, he did all that,

and he gave nice big tax cuts to fat cats - just enough to have paid for the things he cut. He's a bastard, sure and true, just like his small big brother.

[RebelOne]

8. Well, believe it or not, even Neal Boortz was pissed about this. n/t

[Supersedeas]

9. John Thune must know how it feels =)

[Unforgiven]

10. Thanks

for posting this info. I say Kick!